Anyone ever practice this on their place?
How is it for control of mesquite and cactus?

if you have a dozer i would just blade all the mesquite and cactus up into a pile or pile's ,clear an area around them to keep the fire from being able to jump,and burn the pile's that way. if it's a big pasture with sparse cactus and brush and you have some man power it can be done,but be ready to fight it for a while. we would bring a dozer in every couple of years blade down the unwanted brush and cactus,re cut sendero's and burn the pile's once the weather cooperated,and this seemed to work very well,and in the 30 somthing years my family had this ranch only one time did we have one get out of hand (family member who thought he would do it on his own,and it was simple as drenching the pile in some diesel and striking a match) he was out there by himself for about 18 hours we figure with a shove and a garden hose, he was lucky he was near the main house. but if you want to do a controlled burn i would contact the forestry service and see who you need to get with down there in gonzales. i've seen controlled burns get out of hand a couple of time's and they were ranchers who had done them before. but with wind conditions and elements out of your control they can become a monster in just seconds.

Curtis my lease burned completely last year uncontrolled; well now the mesquite has come back to new levels. It is all scrub but it is out of control. The cactus I didnt really notice because it wasnt bad. I will be there this weekend probably and ill take a closer look. But No on mesquite.

Mesquite LOVES to be burned and it doesn't affect cactus much. Other than that, controlled, prescribed burns are an essential management practice for any tract of land.

You'll need chemical control on mesquite & cactus and I've used them on both...great results!

I use to practice it on the Bass ranch every year. It can reduce some of the cactus but not much as far as mesquite goes it will not affect them at all. It is great for new Forbe growth, the place will grow back greener and more lush than you would imagine.

kyotee mentioned chemical control,and that is somthing we did year around every chance we got,especially in the pasture land and fence line's. and i'm having a hard time remembering what the chemical was ,but we mixed it with diesel and round up,and it worked pretty good. i just was never willing or had the experience to take on a controlled burn, always affraid of making the evening news.

Remedy and Reclaim

The Ag Station at Sonora has regular seminars on doing controlled burns. They should come up by querying; www.ranchmanagement.org. Nice folks and a nice place to visit and learn.

remedy is the one, i just couldn't remeber. as far as just blading, we would push it over and with the sandy ground were able to up root atleast the big one's for the most part. we root plowed and chained the place in the early 80's and then just kept up with the maintenance. but we were never over run with mesquite or cactus in the place's we didn't want it(for the most part). it's a full time battle none the less,and good luck. another thing i should mention is this place was only about 100+ acres so it was a little easier to stay on top of.

o2bwest is exactly correct. Controlled burns require an ample amount of preparation and have a lot of conditions which have to be right to be effective. Windspeed, humidity, and temperature, to name the top 3. If done correctly, it will clear off anything but mature trees. One thing you do have to do is clear out the leaves from under your oak trees as they will smolder for days, eventually killing them. Aside of that, it is the most effective as well as efficient, means of clearing.

The pasture I'm going to do is only about 15 acres of solid mesquite and cactus. There is some good coastal grasses in there. The scimitar and axis like this particular piece. I can plow about a 8'-16' barrier around the entire section. There is no oak trees in this small piece. I just wanted to burn it and hopefully kill out some of the mesquite and cactus in it. I didn't want to kill out all of the mequite, rather thin it out. It may just be better for me to just go in and and spot spray some of this stuff instead. Most of this mesquite is about 8'-10' tall. There is a lot of dead wood in there that I would like to get cleaned out.

The basics to the burn. You need to doze or plow a 16' border around it. Then start your fire on the down wind side, so that the fire slowly creeps up wind. Once there is about 200' feet burned up from the down wind side you go around and start the fires on the up wind side. In theory, when it meets the other burn it will stop. The fire burning from the up wind side, when the conditions are right, will have the heat and the size to burn out most of your brush, but might not take the larger mesquite.

I forgot to mention fuel (grass) for the fire in my earlier post, and I can't remember what the requirements are for a good burn, but its some number of pounds of grass per acre. I think you can find it on the internet.

You should have a 250 gallon tank in a truck with a motorized pump and a couple of people on 4 wheelers with 2-5 gallon sprayers to put out any fires that jump. That's not too big of an area, but becareful, fires will sure fool ya!

These links may help. Get some help before you burn. Lots of things can go wrong.


http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_w7000_1019.pdf

http://www.precisionbrushcontrol.com

Curtis, since you only have 15 AC I would recommend clearing it with a small dozer or backhoe and spraying to follow up.

Pay dozer work for only 15 AC is not that cost effective for me. That little amount of work for the cost of a dozer is pretty high. Given there is a good big of risk with the fire, I admit, but I think with my given situation and from what info I have recieved from local biologist the control burn is best. I got a plan set up and it will not cost me near as much as a dozer service but thanks for the advice.

If you are close to Lubbock, Texas Tech has a fire ecology program that will burn for landowners and is usually cheaper than most professionals.

It is too late in the year to do a prescribed burn now. The Natures Conservancy has a group that will assist you in conducting a prescribed burn on your ranch. I believe they want to have some rights for the next couple of years to monitor the burnt acreage. PM me for contacts.

Yes, I know its not the time of year to do it. As I stated earlier, I have some help from a biologist now that will get us on the right track.

Good luck in your efforts.